


Advent Calendar 2017

by redgoldblue



Series: Advent Calendars [5]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Gilmore Girls, Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series, Supergirl (TV 2015), Torchwood
Genre: Babysitting, Christmas, College AU, Decorating, F/F, F/M, First Meeting, Fluff, Gen, Hanukkah, Jess Mariano is a mature lad and I love him to bits, Leonard and Martin and Ray are all Jewish goddamnit, M/M, Make Me Kai, PTSD!Steve, Snow, Snowman, Soulmate AU, Team Bonding, babby spock, because they're all alive, episode tag 8x09, explicit Coldwave now, implicit Coldwave, notice I use the present tense, ohana teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-09 03:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 16,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12879564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redgoldblue/pseuds/redgoldblue
Summary: Short pieces for every day from the 1st to 24th, some Christmas/holiday themed, some not. Mostly fluffy.





	1. Jim Has A Nap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This has been a hectic year for us all, and sometimes you just need to lie down in a dark room for a while. So. Jim gets Tired and Overstimulated and has a very merry crew.

Jim stared at the light flooding the viewscreen and sighed. Being stationed to watch and record a new type of slow-moving supernova may theoretically be an ideal mission for the holiday season, but between the overwhelming - even when automatically dimmed to a sight manageable by the eyes of those on shift - light he had to look at whenever he was on the bridge, the bright decorations of various cultures, and the songs being played in the rec rooms and most everywhere else, all Jim really wanted right now was a moment of dark and quiet. He watched the clock on his PADD above the most recent mission update from Starfleet click over for three minutes, then closed it and stood up. “You have the conn, Lieutenant Williams.”

The young woman stood up from her position at navigation and nodded stiffly at him. “Sir.”

He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck and considered telling her she could ease up on the formalities, then decided it wasn't worth it. He nodded back silently and stepped into the turbolift. As the doors closed, there was a brief moment of black before the bright lights clicked on, and Jim roundly cursed the lights, then made a mental note to alert Scotty to it. He leant back and closed his eyes briefly.

 

He laid his palm against the pad outside their quarters, and said “James Kirk.” The door slid open to let him in, but instead of the silent dimness he was expecting, he was greeted by a plethora of candles and a clanging entirely unpleasant to human ears. He briefly watched his bondmate, sitting cross-legged and entirely still in traditional robes with his eyes closed, and backed out again. Spock wasn't the greatest fan of the atmosphere on board right now, being thick with emotions and projected thoughts, so it wasn't really a surprise that he'd elected to perform the full meditation ritual. Annoying, though. He headed back to the turbolift.

 

Jim opened the door to the greenhouse.

“Hey, Captain!” Sulu greeted, head popping up over a long wall of plants associated with varying holidays. Jim squinted, attempting to see his face through the artificial sunlight above the plants. 

“Why...” he asked, waving a hand at the light. “Where are the other plants?”

Sulu ran a hand over the tops of the plants at his shoulder height. “I'm trying to make sure they all grow fully so everyone can have their ones for their quarters in time. And Pasha's just putting the last of the others into storage so I can focus on these. It's packed tight in there but they'll be okay.”

“I don't suppose there's enough space for a starship captain who's been shirking his diet in with them then.”

Sulu frowned at him. “What? No.”

Jim waved a hand. “Never mind. See you tomorrow.”

Sulu called out something to him as he exited the overlit room, but since he didn’t try to repeat it he figured it wasn’t important.

 

He peered into a few rec rooms, seeing Uhura singing to a rapt audience, who waved to him without dropping a note; a large group of officers with tables pushed together playing a raucous game of dreidel; three engineers and a linguist with machine pieces spread everywhere trying to figure out how to modify an Arkanian holovid to project stars around the room; and a group of senior security staff, plus a few of their partners from varying parts of the ship, throwing tinsel around and setting up a synthesised pine tree for a party that night. “Hey, Commander Sh'koom!” Jim called in. “What are you doing organising an Earth celebration?”

The officer turned around, antennae bending. “Captain,” she said, typically soft-spoken. “I don't entirely understand it, but I was invited and Nora was keen, so we are assisting.”

Nora, her human wife and one of Spock's favourite scientists - although he'd vigorously deny having favourites - waved from the other side of the room, where she was propping up the top of the tree while two burly security officers struggled with the base.

“Right. The things we do for love, eh?”

The tendrils on her neck curved forward in her version of a smile, and he nodded to her, and waved back to Nora, before leaving.

 

He was in a markedly better mood by the time he approached Sickbay, but was also feeling even more overburdened by noise and colour. He walked in the door and groaned. There was glitter everywhere, simulations of snow on the unused life sign screens, and light tinkly music playing over the emergency warning sound system for the room. “Not you too.”

Bones looked up from performing the hourly check on the sole patient, a xenobiology officer who'd been put in an induced coma to work through an infection he'd picked up planetside.

“The decorating? I was press-ganged by Christine and M'Benga, not my choice, believe me. You usually like this stuff, though.”

“I'm just... over it. I've been watching a goddamn holiday decoration for the last week out the viewscreen, I'd like downtime without it.”

“Well, come into the office, it's slightly more bearable.”

Bones sat down and pulled up a screen on the office PADD to start doing paperwork. Jim sat down at the end of the desk and leant heavily on the table.

“Can't you just go to your quarters?” Bones asked. “I doubt Spock's been suddenly suffused with holiday cheer and decided to decorate them.”

“No, but he's meditating and you know that involves that godawful clanging.”

“Just wake him up.”

“No, he's been having a harder time of it than me. I'm just being a grumpy old man.” He let his head slide down to rest on his arms. “I'm an old man, Bones,” he said, muffled.

“And what does that make me?”

“An older man.”

Bones snorted. “I guess.”

Jim pulled himself up with some effort and leant back. “I'm glad they're all happy, really I am. Good for crew morale and all that. And I’m glad anyway. But it means it's impossible to find a room on board without something.” He slid back down. “Make it quiet, Bones?” he asked despondently.

“Well, I'm not giving you a sedative, if that's what you mean.” He eyed him sideways. “You can go use my quarters till Spock returns to the world of the living, if you want, though.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Oh, thankyou.” He got up and put his hands either side of his face to dramatically kiss his forehead. “You're a good friend.”

“Maybe I just want you out of here so I can finish working,” he grumbled, smiling.

“Oh!” Jim turned around at the door. “You'll need to authorize me so I can get in.”

Bones stared at him. “Jim, you're the captain. Just use your override.”

“Oh, right. Yeah,” he muttered.

“Go sleep, for gods sakes.”

 

The door opened and Jim jerked and rolled over. He felt someone poke at the bond, and wrinkled his nose. He reluctantly sat up and saw Spock backlit by the corridor lights. “Dr. McCoy told me you would be here. I believe you are scheduled to speak with an admiral about the Enterprise's next shore leave in 30 minutes.”

“You couldn't do it for me?” he grumbled without heat.

Spock walked over and extended a hand to pull him up. “Would you like me to tell the admiral that Starfleet's most respected captain couldn't speak to them at this time because he was tired and needed a nap?”

“Oh, don't be...”

Spock stayed close to him, shoulders brushing, as they walked the short distance down to their own quarters. “I believe that after that we are invited to Nyota's birthday celebration.”

“Oh crap, I'd forgotten about that.”

“She would understand if we did not appear,” then, “Commander Spock,” to the door lock.

He smiled at him as they walked in. “No, I can do Nyota's. It'll be fun. You're playing, anyway, aren't you?”

“She did request it.”

“Well, you do have to be there then.”

Jim pulled on a new uniform shirt and sat down to call Starfleet headquarters. He put two fingers up behind his shoulder and Spock placed his own over them. “Love you. You go get ready for the party.”

“I am not the one who got overstimulated and had to take a nap.”

“I'm never gonna live that down now, am I?”

“I love you also, Jim.”


	2. First Snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently the second one last year was Gilmore Girls too, funnily enough. This one's Soft™, though.

Luke rolled over and put his arm out only for it to fall flat to the bed. He opened his eyes at the impact and saw the sheets on Lorelai’s side crumpled and the pillow sideways, as if she’d left in a hurry. ‘Maybe she’s just gone home,’ he thought hopefully, attempting to convince his brain that she was a fully-grown woman who could take care of herself and he could go back to sleep. ‘In the middle of the night?’ his brain countered. ‘A freezing cold night with snow forecast?’ Oh. Snow. He sighed and got up, pacing through the dark apartment to put his jacket on and grabbing Lorelai’s, predictably left behind, before walking downstairs. He paused in the middle of the diner, suddenly flooded with love. She was sitting on the stoop, dark hair falling over shoulders hunched in wonder and anticipation. The bell rang when he opened the door, an impossibly loud sound in the stillness, and she looked up.

“Hey,” he said quietly, sitting down slightly behind her.

“Snow’s coming,” was her soft reply.

“Yeah, I guessed that. Here,” he extended her jacket to her.

“Thankyou. But I’m not cold.”

He sighed and draped it over her shoulders. “Just… put up with it, please. It’s freezing. The snow would still have been here tomorrow.”

“It’s the first snow of the year. I couldn’t miss the start of it, you know that.”

He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. “I know.”

She looked back out, waiting for the first flakes. “You didn’t have to come out, though. I mean, I’m glad you did, but I know you’d rather be sleeping in the warm.”

“I couldn’t let you freeze out here in your ridiculously thin pyjamas.”

She laughed and leant back against him. “I did survive many snows without you, you know.”

“Hmph.”

They sat in silence for a while, appreciating the heavy silence and emptiness of the town in the middle of the night, and the warmth of each other. Lorelai was looking up at the sky, while Luke shut his eyes and waited for the inevitable heralding from her.

“Look,” it came, her hair brushing his arm as she tracked the first flake downwards. “Here it is.”

He opened his eyes and watched it with her, as it was rapidly joined by others until they were looking out at a rain of clean white. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he could feel the pure awe radiating from her.

“You can go back inside now if you want,” she said, a hint of reluctance in her voice.

“No. This is… special.”

She raised her head to kiss him, and he could feel the warm curve of her smile. “I knew I’d convert you,” she said as she pulled back. He turned to face her and put his other arm around her, pulling her into a hug.

“Besides, who knows how many first snows we’ll get, yeah? Gotta appreciate them.”

She returned the hug, shaking her head. “Don’t say that. An infinite number of first snows, that’s how many we’re going to get. We should still appreciate them, though, that doesn’t change anything.”

“Sure,” he agreed easily, sliding his hands under her jacket to feel her warmth radiating through the thin cotton of her pyjama shirt. “An infinite number of first snows.”


	3. Ray Is Small

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what it is with me and decorating spaceships. Anyway, the title basically sums it up otherwise (Ray Palmer, that is)
> 
> EDIT as of the 6th: cannae believe that LoT put young Stein in an ugly Hanukkah sweater not three days after I put Ray in one I love it. (also Ray was the only one to say Happy Hanukkah back to him so he's Jewish #confirmed)

“Whatcha doin’, Haircut?”

Ray turned around from the kitchen table. He was holding an old but well cared for menorah in one hand with a packet of candles precariously balanced on top, had tinsel draped around his neck, was wearing a sweater with stars of David, dreidels, and snowflakes, which was almost audibly clashing with itself, and was attempting with his free hand to pour chocolate coins into a bowl on the table patterned with pine trees. “Decorating!” he exclaimed brightly.

Mick waved a beer bottle at the various objects and raised an eyebrow.

Ray shrugged. “Well, my mother was Jewish and my father’s Catholic, so we always did both, and anyway you know me, any chance for a celebration, so…”

“Where’d you get it all?”

“Gideon made them! Well, apart from the menorah,” he gestured with the hand holding it, then hastily stilled as the candles made to fall off. “That’s my mother’s, I brought it from home. It isn’t time to light it for a week – bit more – but I figured I could put it up. We don’t really have a window, though, so I’m not sure where. I should see what Snart and the professor are doing.”

Mick grunted, sitting down. “Don’t think Len has one.”

“What? Really? No! Why not?”

“Not that festive. And doesn’t exactly have family heirlooms. Not that he wants to remember, anyway.”

Ray got a determined look on his face. “Well, he can share mine. We’re family now. Where is he? I can see where he thinks we should put it.” The implication from his tone was that he was sharing it whether he wanted to or not.

“Don’t know,” replied Mick, refraining from any comment on Len’s possible reaction to that.

“Well, I-” The candles sensed emotion from their holder and made a dive for the ground. He went to reach for them with the other hand, forgetting it was still inside the bowl on the kitchen table, and somehow ended up sitting on the floor on top of the now distinctly broken candles with the bowl on top of his head, tilted at a jaunty angle, surrounded by chocolate coins and with the tinsel thrown to the opposite side of the room. Mick looked at him blankly for a second, then started loudly guffawing.

“Who made a fart joke now, Mick?” Sara asked from the doorway, then came further inside and saw Ray, who looked at her despondently. “Oh,” she said, a grin playing on her lips as she struggled not to join Mick in laughing. “Are you alright, Ray?”

He put the menorah, which he’d somehow kept his grasp on throughout, firmly down on the ground and reached up to take the bowl off his head. “I’m fine.”

She knelt down next to him to help him gather the coins. “Were you decorating?”

“Yeah. Oh, I wanted to ask you, can we put a Christmas tree in the bridge?”

She frowned. “I mean, I’m not against the idea, but I think it might get in the way. How about in the office, so you can still see it from the bridge?”

He grinned at her. “Okay, cool. I’ll get on that. Do you know where Snart is?”

“He going to help decorate?” she asked wryly.

“No, I have to talk to him about where to put our menorah.”

“Last I saw him he was sitting down in the bay.”

“Thanks!” Ray clambered to his feet and put the bowl on the table, then brushed himself off and picked up the tinsel and menorah. He walked out with the look of a man on a mission.

Sara crossed her legs and started sweeping up the candle fragments from where he’d been sitting. “ _Our_ menorah?” she asked Mick.

“Hmp. Don’t ask.”

“Alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Btw I'm not Jewish, and I have no close Jewish friends, so if I fuck up anything Hanukkah-related at any point please tell me


	4. Aeroplane Musings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a lil' bit of Danny stream of consciousness. Written, appropriately enough, on an aeroplane.

Danny gazed out the window. He’d been on enough planes back and forth between Jersey and Hawaii that the experience was now entirely mundane – and half the airport staff at both ends greeted him with a cheery ‘Hello, Mr. Williams’ without even looking at his boarding pass – but the moment when they rose above the clouds still never failed to fill him with awe. Especially when – as now – he could see the tall buildings of Jersey and New York in miniature, with white fluff floating above. He considered getting his phone out to take a picture for Grace and Charlie, but they’d been on their fair share of planes too, particularly Grace, and photos could never fully capture it anyway. He wondered who was picking him up at Honolulu. All he knew was that when he’d asked Grace to ask Rachel whether he should take a taxi, she’d said no. But the job was fairly evenly split between Steve and Rachel these days. When he’d first been making the trip, there had been no-one to greet him at this end – Rachel and he were still in bitter straits over her moving here, and he hadn’t known anyone else well enough. He had to admit that while the trip back was a lot less torturous now partly just because Hawaii was now home, having someone there to meet him – and they did always insist on one or the other of them doing it – helped a lot too. Whether it was Rachel, finally friendly and in a relatively good place (the divorce from Stan was taking a toll on her, but much less of one than he knew theirs had, and he had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, he was glad that she didn’t have to go through that again, and relieved for her. On the other, it was a vivid reminder of what an asshole he’d been to her during their divorce) with Charlie – always excited to see him – and Grace – who had obviously designated him coming back from the mainland as one of the situations in which she could let up on her pretence of disinterest. Or whether it was Steve holding the lei he still insisted on buying every time (“It’s rude not to, Danno. Besides, I’m supporting the aunties’ business, yeah? You want to be on their good side, they can fuck you up.”) and ready to either launch straight into banter or spend the drive home in silence, whichever he decided Danny needed. Going home from a flight alone was a weird and unpleasant experience. He hadn’t wanted to make this trip back at all, but Eddie and Clara – well, mostly Clara – had insisted that they had to see him for Christmas this year, since they hadn’t last year, and his sister and her family had been coming home a couple weeks before Christmas anyway, so that they could go off somewhere – Tahiti, that’s it – for Christmas itself, and he figured this was a good compromise. Avoid the airport crowds and traffic jams of Christmas week, while still having Christmas in both places with both bits of family. He’d promised to Skype them on Christmas day too, with Charlie and Grace, since they couldn’t make it there physically.  He had to make sure he remembered that, or they’d kill him. Also check whether Rachel was doing the whole Christmas party thing with Stan on Christmas Eve to keep up appearances this year, and if so whether he was getting Charlie and Grace or just Charlie. If it was both of them, maybe he could call them then. That’d be easier than doing it on Christmas Day, when Charlie would be incredibly overstimulated and would refuse to sit still and talk to them for longer than 30 seconds. Also, there’d be a lot of people on Christmas day, since Rachel had offered to host the whole thing, with both sides of the family. Including Kono, who was flying back for the holidays. He’d missed her even more than he’d thought he would. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the stewardess coming down. “Drinks, sir?”

“No, thanks, I’m fine.”

She nodded and moved on, and he returned to looking out the window, now at a thick layer of white cloud, which looked almost like snow. Very Christmassy, he thought, and decided to take a photo to tease Steve about the lack of Christmas snow in Hawaii.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You've just witness a live performance by the newest hot band - em dash hell! I did have a photo for the end and everything but Ao3 is hellish when it comes to photos and won't let me put it there so hmmmmm.


	5. Earth Weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's actually been pretty cold down here in Aus despite supposedly being summer (thanks climate change), which may be why you've got two snow-themed stories in five days. Why they've both taken place in the middle of the night, I don't know. Oh, and I haven't edited this one bc it's 2am here, so just go with it.

Michael peeked out the crack between the doorway and her door, at Amanda and Spock on the landing. She was supposed to be asleep, but so were they. Even Vulcan babies don’t cry, apparently, which had shocked Michael when her baby brother was born – Amanda and Sarek may not be her parents yet, but Spock was definitely her baby brother. But Vulcan babies do still fuss, and wake up in the middle of the night, and express their disapproval by demanding to be walked around the house. Or at least, half-Vulcan babies do. So Amanda was walking up and down, bouncing him. He’d been waking up a lot, the past two weeks while they were here on Earth. It couldn’t be the cold, because their house temperature was set only very slightly lower than Vulcan’s average. But they were all having trouble adjusting to the lighter gravity, Sarek most of all, so it was probably that. Amanda had decided that she had to bring Spock to Earth as a baby so that he would be better adjusted to it when they came when he was older, and it had been a good opportunity to show Sarek her home town in a way she’d never got to before, and Michael had wanted to visit as well. She knew she’d been on Earth when she was a baby, but all her memories were on the research station or on Vulcan. She’d adjusted to the gravity the quickest of all of them, since she’d only been in Vulcan’s for a little over a year, but the strangest thing was the cold whenever she went outside. The station had varied very little in temperature, and Vulcan of course was desert, but here it was winter and it was getting below freezing in the evenings. Michael was woken up from the half-sleep she’d fallen into at the door by a faint gasp. She stuck her head out a little further and saw Amanda at the other end of the landing, still holding Spock on her shoulder, looking out the window with the curtains half-covering her. She turned around and walked towards the stairs at the other end. Michael hastily tried to pull her head back in and close the door, but was too late. She froze as Amanda saw her, but all she did was smile at her and hold out her hand. Michael hesitantly took it, and she pulled her out with her.

“Come downstairs and look with me,” she whispered. “We’re snowed in.”

Michael frowned but followed her down the stairs. That didn’t sound like a good thing to her, but Amanda looked happy. But then, she did have a certain fascination with the slightly surreal, and being snowed in certainly sounded surreal to Michael. Downstairs, Amanda keyed in the code to make the front door transparent, and Michael unconsciously echoed her earlier gasp. Everything she could see was an encompassing white, drifts coming a third of the way up the door and blanketing the trees in the front yard and their hovercraft sitting on the street. She put a hand on the door where the drift ended, feeling the cold seep through and noticing the contrast of colours. Amanda chuckled behind her, and put the arm not holding Spock around her, one-armedly hugging her from behind. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she said quietly, careful not to disturb the baby, who was also staring out in awe. “I’d hoped you’d see this.”

Michael tilted her head up to look at her. “Doesn’t it mean we can’t get out?” she asked.

“Yes, for now, but we have everything we need in here and the snow will melt eventually. In the meantime it can be an adventure. You can go out in it when it melts a bit, and for now we’ll just stay in here. Maybe I can finally get Sarek to play a board game,” she said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “We’ll have fun.”

She was unsure of that, but decided her best option was to try to believe it. Fun. She could do that.

 

By the time the snow melted enough for them to get further than their front gate, Sarek, Michael, and even Amanda were getting antsy, but Spock was happier than he’d been the entire trip, Michael was one step closer to accepting her place with them, and Amanda had gotten Sarek to play a board game. He’d complained the entire time that the rules were illogical, but he’d still gone easily along with it when Amanda suggested a rematch. The fact that he’d won that time may or may not have contributed to his concession that maybe they had some logic to them.


	6. Working Title: Jess' crush on Rory is the worst kept secret in Stars Hollow and that's saying something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opening scene to a Jess-centric Gilmore Girls/Literati fic I will probably never write. The plan is for tomorrow's to be a scene following on from this one, though, and I may end up doing one of the climactic scenes later on, so you never know, maybe it'll construct itself.

Luke glanced up from where he was stubbornly trying to convince the till to work as the door to the diner opened, half-hoping it was Lorelai so he'd have an excuse to take a break from this damnable thing. He startled when a different familiar face cautiously walked through. “Jess? What are you doing in Stars Hollow, is something wrong?”

The young man smiled wryly, still looking a little unsure at being in the space he'd known so well, but nevertheless moving over to sit at the counter. “Is it really so outside the realms of possibility that I just came back for a visit?”

“Well... yes,” Luke admitted.

“Believe the impossible, dear Uncle,” he retorted with good humour. As he opened his mouth to continue, Cesar stuck his head out the kitchen door. “Hey, Luke,” he started in a harried tone. “You fix the till yet? Because the second burner back here- Jess?” he cut himself off. “Is that you?” He didn't wait for Jess' nod of confirmation before bustling out of the door. “I thought it was when I first looked out but then I went 'nooo, it couldn't be, not Jess Mariano coming back here, not without his mother dying or some like' - Liz isn't dead, is she?”

“Not so far as I know,” Jess replied.

Cesar had got all the way around to Jess' stool before apparently remembering that neither of them were hugging people. He awkwardly slapped him on the shoulder, then made his way back around. 

“Yeah, go back in the kitchen,” Luke contributed. “You're gonna make him sorry he did come.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cesar flapped a hand at him dismissively, but disappeared back behind the swinging door.

Jess and Luke turned back to each other. 

“So, did you really just come for a visit?” Luke questioned again.

Jess shrugged. “Well, I did have some ulterior motive. Truncheon's five-year anniversary is coming up - which is insane - and we wanted to have a proper gathering. Only there's not that many of us, and we're all, you know, awkward troubled writer types, so in order for it to actually be more than five people sitting on a couch drinking beer and bemoaning the state of literature or the tax system - which we do every week anyway - we were all sent out to enlist everyone we vaguely liked and thought might come.” He raised his hands in the air and let them drop again. “I mean, if you don't want to it's fine, but I did come all the way back to Stars Hollow... Which is apparently a bigger deal than I realised.”

Luke's smile had slowly grown through what was positively a speech for either of them. “Of course I'll come, when is it?”

Jess frowned. “You sure? I know large groups of people aren't really your thing. Hell, they’re not really mine.”

“Yeah, I'm sure, Jess.”

His lips quirked. “Okay, it's gonna be three weeks away, some time in the first week of January, Chris had to work something out before we set the date exactly.”

“I'll make sure to clear my busy social calendar for then.”

There was a moment of silence, and Luke lifted the till up again and deliberately averted his gaze from his nephew before enquiring, “So did you come back here to ask anyone else?”

Jess shrugged in the corner of his eye, but his posture shifted just slightly. “Well, obviously you can bring Lorelai if she wants to come. Do you think I should ask her myself? I do want to be on better terms with the woman you're spending the rest of your life with, so if you think she'd appreciate me inviting her...”

“Yeah, I think she probably would.”

“Alright, I'll go down to the Inn later.”

“Anyone else?” he continued, his tone carefully bland.

Jess chuckled awkwardly. “What, you think Miss Patty would like it?”

“Well, actually, yes, I think she'd love it - Matthew and Chris have straight single friends, right?”

“Would she care if they were gay?”

“Good point. She'd probably be willing to give being a beard a try. But anyway, that wasn't who I meant.”

Jess swallowed dryly. “Is she around?”

“Not right now, but she's coming back next week for her Christmas break.”

“Even high-faluting presidential reporters get those, then?”

Luke chuckled. “Apparently.”

“Well… yes. Do you think she’d come?”

Luke put his screwdriver down and raised his eyebrows. “Of course she would. She cares for you, Jess, one way or-”

Jess thanked God that whatever he’d been about to say was cut off by Cesar coming back out.

“Luke, the second burner’s dead, that’s why I came out here before. You done on the till? ‘Cause I’ve got too many things cooking back there to be down one.”

“I should go find somewhere to stay, anyway,” Jess said, starting to get up.

“You can stay with us,” Luke offered, waving a placating hand at Cesar.

“No, I’ll be fine-”

“Seriously? Liz’d kill me if I let you stay anywhere else.”

“You sure? You don’t want to check with Lorelai?”

He laughed. “Lorelai would also kill me if I didn’t. No matter her personal feelings on you.”

“Well… okay.” He picked his duffel bag up from the floor beside him. “See you later, Uncle.”

Luke waved at him and followed Cesar into the kitchen.


	7. JCoRitWKSiSHaTSS Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *claps hands* look at my boy being mature! Look at him go! Lorelai is also being mature, but despite what Emily would have you believe, that's actually pretty common.

“Hi, welcome to the Dragonfly Inn, if you could just wait a moment I’ll be right with you,” Lorelai rattled off, seeing a figure enter the room out of the corner of her eye. She finished writing the pointed email to the plumbers who had failed to turn up today and hit enter, then looked up. “Sorry about that. Here to check in?” she asked, before squinting at the patiently waiting face in front of her. “Jess?”

“Everyone’s really shocked, huh?”

“Well, yes. Does Rory know you’re in town?”

She wasn’t really sure what answer she would have preferred, but the one she got was a slightly awkward, “No, I’m kind of hoping to surprise her. Luke said she gets back next week?”

Lorelai smiled despite herself. Remembering that made her slightly more inclined to remember Jess’ good features. Like how happy he made Rory. “Yeah, she’s home for the holidays. Is that why you’re here?”

He half-shrugged. “Well, yes and no.”

“What, you’re here to celebrate Christmas but not Hanukkah? You’re not actually here, it’s a hologram of you? You’re secretly here on a stealth mission to infiltrate Taylor’s office and the holidays was the best time to do it?”

He laughed. “No, I- Well, technically the first one is true- no, okay.” He recounted the story of the anniversary party. “So I came to invite Luke, and I figured I’d stay for the holidays since I was here anyway. And Liz has been bugging me to do Christmas here since I left. And I came here,” he pointed to the desk, “specifically, here, to invite you too. If you want to come. You don’t have to, I know you’re not… my greatest fan.” He grimaced and forced himself to continue. “But I thought you might come with Luke anyway, and you’re the most important person in the lives of two of the most important people in my life – that was a terrible sentence. And I call myself a writer. You know what I mean. So, I also wanted to…” he trailed off.

Lorelai smiled at him. “Thankyou. You’re right, I probably would have come anyway, but thankyou for coming here and saying that.” She sighed. “You’re also right that we should try to get to know each other better for Rory and Luke’s sakes if nothing else. We’re family whether we like it or not, and it’d be a lot more pleasant if we liked it.” Seeing Jess start to fidget, and not feeling terribly comfortable herself, she switched gears slightly. “Do you know where you’re staying?”

“Uuuhh…”

“There’s no rooms free here, but- hey, you’ve been to Luke’s already. He said you could stay with us?”

“Um. Yes.” He laced his fingers together and rushed on. “I don’t have to though. There are other places in town, so if you’d rather I didn’t…”

She shrugged. “No, like I said, we’re family. Anyway, you can stay in Rory’s room for the next week, she always complains that it feels creepy and empty when she comes back.”

He blinked, trying to figure out whether rejecting that would be pushing his luck or whether she’d prefer he did, and decided he didn’t know but rejecting it would be harder. “Well, I’m always happy to suffer for Rory,” he said lightly.

Lorelai closed her eyes, hearing something familiar and almost heartbreakingly sincere in that. She nodded slowly. “We’ve got something in common there. We can build on that.”

Jess nodded back to her, and there was a silent pause which teetered on the edge of awkward. The desk phone broke it, and Lorelai exhaled sharply and picked it up. “Hey, Michel,” she said after a pause. “How am I? Oh, I’m just dandy. Couldn’t be better. In fact-” There was a sharp burst of noise from the receiver. “Yes, alright, I know.”

Jess gestured towards the door and waved. She rolled her eyes and waved back. “I just emailed them. Yes, it was sharp. No, I did not text-shout at them. Because I still have to work with them. Yes, I do.”

Jess walked out into the fresh air and took a deep breath, remembering that Stars Hollow air always felt like maybe someone was spiking it with fairy dust, especially after New York. He slung his duffel more securely across his shoulder and walked back out to his car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, if I ever did write this, there'd be parallel plotlines of getting Jess and Rory together and getting Jess and Lorelai to a good, friendly, place, so this is the start of the latter.


	8. First Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ack, sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, I was completely exhausted and didn't get a chance to finish it. Anyway, this is also the first one that is not holiday-related, and shockingly enough it's McDanno. It was really weird rewatching the first episode for this, they're both so tense.

Everyone got an impression of the moment that they would meet their soulmate as soon as they turned 18. 'Impression' was broad, and no one had figured out why it was 18 - the working theory from scientific and historical evidence was that it was originally related to the 'safe' age at which you'd be likely to live long enough to reproduce, and then at some point it went haywire and got stuck, likely because of something to do with the Industrial Revolution. In any case, everyone got something. If they were asleep, they dreamed it, and hopefully woke up in the morning with memories of it. Eddie and Clara hadn't wanted to risk Danny not remembering, since Clara hadn't and it had delayed them getting together. So even though he had an exam the next day, he sat up till 3:20 am, attempting to ignore the excitement radiating off his parents and study, and mostly failing. He watched the clock tick over from 3:15, 3:16, 3:17, 3:18, 3:19-  
He was hit with a medley of feelings, all confusing and intense. The lighting was dim, he could smell motor oil and some burning intense smell that he later identified as cordite, and the shapeless shadow before him radiated dark intensity in a way that was almost frightening. A second later, he was jolted back out of it. He relayed it all to his parents, nodded through how thrilled they were at the complexity of it, and went to sleep.  
  
When he first met Rachel, he thought that was it. He's not sure now how genuinely he believed it, or how much he was trying to convince himself because he was attracted to her and it would just make the whole thing so much easier. There were matches though - it was at dusk, they were on a busy road, he was carrying a gun, and Rachel was certainly intense, albeit not quite in the same way as the figure. Nothing quite matched exactly, but everything was close enough to believe it, and the impressions weren’t always 100% accurate, they were too vague for that. And even after he realised that it hadn’t been the moment, their relationship was proof that you didn’t have to be soulmates to have a good relationship. They stayed together, and in love, for 2 kids and the better part of 2 decades. They only split up when Rachel met her soulmate, and her description of it was the clearest Danny had ever heard. “You’ll find them, one day, too,” she assured him. “And when you do, you won’t have to try to convince yourself of it. You’ll just know.”

 

Danny registered the figure in the shadows of the garage and immediately whipped his gun out. A second later, the other person mirrored him. Danny frowned, wondering why this whole thing felt somehow familiar, then he felt something click within him. “Son of a bitch! Really?”

The man across from him stepped out of the shadows slightly, and Danny barely had time to register the look of confusion on his face before continuing.

“I’ve been waiting 34 fucking years and it’s some guy pulling a gun on me in an active crime scene, who is now a suspect in a case I only got put on because the force doesn’t like me? Seriously?”

“It’s you,” the man said, so softly Danny almost didn’t hear it. He didn’t lower his gun, though, so Danny followed suit.

“Yeah, I guess it goddamn is.”

The tension and intensity immediately snapped back into place, covering up any hint of vulnerability he may have shown. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Danny frowned. “Did you not just hear- I’m a cop. What are _you_ doing here, is the more pressing question.”

“I’m gonna need to see a badge,” the man said, ignoring his question.

“No, man, not before you tell me why you’re here.”

“I’m Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, Navy SEALs. This is my father’s house. Now, ID?”

“Nope, sorry, I’m not just gonna take your word for that, soulmate or not. I need ID too.”

“Why would I- okay, fine. At the same time?”

“What, like on the count of three?” Danny asked, voice laced with sarcasm.

“Yeah, count of three,” he replied, apparently completely oblivious.

“Fine. One, two, three.” They pulled their IDs out and flashed them at each other, then holstered their respective guns.

“Look, I’m sorry about your father’s death, and obviously we need to talk, but you gotta leave right now. Like I said before, this is an active crime scene.”

“What’s your name?” Commander McGarrett asked. The man had a real skill for ignoring what Danny was saying.

“Detective Danny Williams. I’m investigating your father’s murder. You gotta leave,” he repeated.

The Commander stared at him briefly, expression inscrutable. “Okay. Hesse wasn’t alone, just so you know. There was someone else sitting at the desk.” He picked up a toolbox from the counter and turned to go.

“Hey! Hey, what are you doing?”

“Leaving. Like you said.”

“Not with that, you’re not. That’s evidence and you know it.”

“I came with this.” His face was infuriatingly blank as he lied through his teeth, and Danny was very quickly revising his feelings on having finally met his soulmate.

“No, you did not. There’s a gap in the dust on the counter,” Danny said, pointing to said gap. “Put it back.”

He stared at him again, a clearly assessing look that was making Danny uncomfortable for more than one reason, then pulled out his phone. “Yes, could I speak to Governor Jameson, please?”

Danny tossed his hands in the air. “Seriously?” Did he really think he was gonna fall for that?

He put the Governor’s greeting on speakerphone, proving that Danny was apparently going to fall for that because it was real, then rattled off something about a task force. Danny stayed silent, waiting to see where this was going.

He frowned, the first sign of emotion on his face since the start of this ridiculous conversation. “Right now? Okay.” He glanced at Danny, turned around and raised his right hand, and recited the law enforcement oath. Danny shook his head slowly.

“Okay. Thankyou, Governor Jameson,” he finished, then turned around and smirked at him, and really, this man was the most confusing mass of signals Danny had ever met.

“Looks like it’s my crime scene now. Be seeing you.” He picked up his evidence box and walked out. Danny watched him leave, staring after him for a solid 30 seconds. He sat down, back against the junk heap of a car taking up most of the garage, as his legs failed him, and started laughing. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was laughing, except that the situation was the most absurd thing he could ever have dreamed up, and he was pretty sure his brain had overloaded from the confusion. Oh, Rachel had always made him swear to tell her about this moment first. Just wait until she heard this. He buried his head in his hands, body shaking with laughter, and tried and failed to figure out exactly what had just happened.


	9. Rhizoperus Culberfera/Fungus Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You'll probably guess what this is about from the name, but in any case the only description you really need is my blog title ( over at http://redgoldblue.tumblr.com/ )

Hugh stood in the doorway of the myco lab. Paul was doing something involving pipettes and petri dishes and hadn’t heard him come in. He was faintly humming something to himself. Hugh didn’t often get to see him like this, completely absorbed in his work, and it was kind of adorable. He picked up a dish, looked at it, then put it back down and started to turn around. He saw Hugh about halfway around, and immediately jumped off his stool and did some complicated arm movement which ended with something shoved under his table. “How long have you been there?” he asked slightly frantically.

“Not long,” he said, wrinkling his brow. “What are you doing?”

“What? Me? Nothing.” He paused and realised that sounded unnecessarily defensive. “Fungus things.”

Hugh laughed. “Yeah, I figured. That’s mostly what happens in the fungus laboratory.”

“That’s true. So. Fungus things. Not your… not something you’d be interested in.”

“I’m interested in some fungus. Penicillium. Are you alright, honey?”

He waved his hands in the air. “I mean, technically penicillium is a genus. Only some members of it have antibiotic properties.”

Hugh smiled at him and waited.

“Oh, yes. I’m fine. Just, uh,” he pointed over his shoulder. “Doing fungus things.”

“Fungus things,” he repeated. “Okay. Should I go back to Sickbay?”

“No! …Yeah.”

“Alright,” he said, and took his hand to pull him forward. Paul leaned in to kiss him, then Hugh shook his head and walked out.

 

“Hey, you said you had some big present for me, am I getting that later?”

“Yeah, later. No, not like that, you monster. Later, in the lab.”

“The lab?”

“Yeah. Just, you’ll see.”

 

A laughing Hugh followed behind Paul, who was dragging him into the lab by his elbow. “What are you doing? Does this have something to do with ‘fungus things’ day? Am I not going to be able to tease you about that anymore?”

Paul’s eyes lit up. “No, you’re not! Here.” He stopped at his bench, and knelt down to pull something out from the temperature controlled cupboards underneath. Hugh took his other hand to pull him up, and he placed a petri dish containing a purple circular growth on the bench. “Meet _Rhizopus Culberfera_. I made him.”

A laugh played at the corner of Hugh’s mouth and he swiped a hand over his face. “You… named a mould after me?”

Paul grinned goofily. “Well, seemed appropriate. You grew on me.”

“Oh, honey, no.” He chuckled gently. “I can’t believe you did that. In more ways than one. That’s… really sweet.” He kissed the hand he was still holding. “That might be the most you thing I’ve ever seen you do.”

“Do you like him?” Paul asked, with a smile that was half proud-father-of-a-mould-baby and half nervous-spouse.

“He’s very pretty. Tell me he’s staying in the lab and I’ll love him even more.”

“Oh, yes. He’s an entirely new strain, he has to.”

Hugh nodded. “Good. Well, I love him. And I love you.”

“I’d say I love both of you, but, well, that would be redundant.”

“I swear to god, if you start calling me a mould regularly now-”

“Hey, you’ve called me Mushroom Man long enough.”

Hugh held up a finger. “Not the same thing.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Paul grabbed his shoulders and kissed him. Hugh pulled away long enough to say, “Definitely not the same thing,” then sank back into it.


	10. The Fam Gangs Up On Steve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kono? Gone? What are you talking about?

Steve glanced up from the computer table and jumped. “What’s that?”

“It’s a dress, boss. You know, full body items of clothing that people sometimes wear, especially when they were supposed to have been on a date.” Kono twirled, knee-length yellow skirt flaring out. “You like?”

“No, I mean, yes, it was just. Unexpected.”

Danny got up from the couch where he’d been looking through old hard copy HPD files and put one in front of Steve. As he read it, Danny said to Kono, “You look beautiful. Don’t listen to the gay man.”

“Hey!” Steve protested mildly.

“The mostly gay man.”

Kono laughed. “Don’t worry, I never do,” she said to Danny.

“Hey, I’m your boss, you better be listening to me sometimes.”

She put a serious expression and nodded at him. “Oh, all the time. Everything you say is so worthwhile, y’know?” She winked broadly at Danny.

“I can both see and hear you.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

Danny slung an arm around his waist and shook his head. “Yeah, I think you’ve started seeing things, to go with your other mental afflictions.”

“Hey, Chin!” Steve called as said team member walked through the door. “They’re ganging up on me just because I didn’t say Kono was beautiful.”

“Perfectly valid reason to gang up on you,” Chin said, coming over to nudge Steve out of his position in control of the table. “Can I join?”  
Kono grinned. “Always, cuz.”

“I mean, there wasn’t any coordinated plan of attack, we were just waiting for him to do something else insane, which shouldn’t take long.”

Steve spread his hands on the edge of the table. “Okay, all of you shut up, or you’re never getting pay raises again. There was actually a reason I called you both, apart from to give Danny allies in his life goal. We’ve got a lead.” He picked up the file Danny had given him and pulled out a piece of paper, showing it to them. “Cal Morrissey. He was a suspect in the original case because of his Yakuza links, and after they arrested Lilah they never bothered to finish checking his alibi.”

“So where is he now?” Kono asked.

“Well. He’s working at a bar in Honolulu, and he claims he’s clean now. A couple of federal agencies have kept surveillance on him anyway, but they’ve only been able to find circumstantial evidence We can’t approach him directly, because it will tip him off and chances are we’ll then get the Yakuza coming after us.” He took a deep breath. “So. We’ve gotta get to him the other way.”

There was a pause in which the other three looked at each other, and realised that none of them had any idea what he meant.

“What way?” Chin asked.

Steve nodded. “Through the Yakuza. We’re going undercover.”

Danny threw his hands in the air. “See? We barely had to wait at all.”


	11. Annoyingly Attractive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ianto serves up some big moods and Jack is his usual self

Ianto slammed the textbook shut slightly louder than he’d meant to and winced. Luckily, the librarian on duty right now was pretty friendly, and knew him well. He folded his arms on top of it and rested his head on top of them, hoping that the knowledge would soak up through osmosis and resisting the urge to scream. His mid-semester exams were tomorrow, he’d been in the library for about five hours without breaking, and he was pretty sure he knew maybe a third of what he had to. If that. Essentially, he was dead. So when someone sat down across the table to him and touched his shoulder, he was really not in the mood.

“What?” he snapped, not bothering to raise his head.

“Hey, whoa,” they said. “You must be Ianto, yeah?”

He lifted his head up and raised his eyebrows. “Yeah. Who are you?”

The man, whose only sufficient description was annoyingly attractive, smiled an annoyingly smug –and attractive – smile, and extended his hand. “I’m your new roommate. Jack Harkness, but people call me Captain.”

“Mmm-hmm.” Ianto shook his hand and definitely did not get thrills from the touch, not at all. “Ianto Jones. People call me Ianto. How did you recognise me?”

“I know people,” he replied, waggling his eyebrows and remaining stubbornly cheerful in the face of Ianto’s mood.

“Really? Seriously? You ‘know people’?” Half his brain was telling him that he had no filter right now and should probably shut up, considering he had to live with this man for the foreseeable future.

“Yep.”

He rolled his eyes. “Great. Suzie leaves and I get stuck with a guy whose ego is as big as his greatcoat.” The aforementioned half of his brain started jumping up and down and shrieking, ‘I told you so!’ The other half was too tired to care. Jack, however, just laughed. Was there anything that would piss him off?

“So,” Jack propped his elbows on the table and leant forward. “What are our roommates like?”

Ianto looked back at his book and pretended he hadn’t noticed the distinctly flirty posture. “Gwen’s cool, sarcastic, won’t take any shit,” ‘you take that tone or posture with her and you’ll regret it,’ he added mentally. “But she’s usually over at her boyfriend, Rhys’s, anyway, you won’t actually see her much. Tosh is pretty quiet, but she’s nice. Really clever, she’s a genius at tech stuff, so if your laptop stuffs up or anything, she can fix it. She’s home more than Gwen, but she actually spends quite a lot of time over at Owen’s too.”

“Sounds like we’ll be home alone a lot.”

Okay, he was definitely flirting. Which, alright, was kind of flattering, considering how good-looking the guy was, and was very pleasant to listen to in that smooth a voice, but was also something Ianto did not have time for right now. No time. He turned a page of his book, despite having read nothing on the pages before, hoping Jack would take the hint.

“Well, I should leave you to… whatever that thrilling tome is,” Jack said. At least that was one thing going for him mind-wise.

“Yep. I don’t have your key on me, but you can come by the house tonight and I’ll give it to you.”

“Alright.” He stood up, and waited there with his hand on the chair back until Ianto looked up at him. “I’ll see you later,” he said, somehow managing to imbue those words with a meaning that did not at all lie in them, and winked at him.

“Yeah,” Ianto said, temporarily at a loss for words.

Jack nodded and walked off, and Ianto tore his gaze away from the hypnotic swing of his coat and returned it to the markedly less hypnotic writing in front of him. See him later.


	12. Babysitting Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #Whoah-oh, we're halfway there#
> 
> Alternate first meeting of Steve and Grace. Happy Hanukkah to any Jewish readers!

“What? You know I don’t know anyone here I could ask.” Danny paced the short length of his apartment. “I know you can’t control what the babysitter did, but can’t you find another one? Doesn’t Stan have, I don’t know, contacts?” Rachel snapped back and he exhaled sharply. “I know you haven’t been here any longer than I have, but he has reasons to leave the house, right? I only just joined the task force and god knows no-one from HPD likes me.” He barely stopped himself from punching the wall, pretty certain that he’d bring the entire building down. “Fine. I’ll find something.”

 

Grace looked around the admittedly pretty impressive space, wide-eyed. “Wow,” she said.

“Yeah. Pretty cool, huh? C’mon, meet the boss. Dolphin man.” He pushed open the door to Steve’s office. He looked up from his computer and jumped.

“Child,” Steve said nonsensically.  
“Yeah,” Danny agreed. “She tends to prefer being called Grace, though. I don't know, personal preference.”

‘Don't sass your boss while you're trying to get him to do you a favour,’ his inner voice of reason reprimanded.

“Grace,” Steve repeated. “Right, Grace.”

“Hello, dolphin man,” she replied, despite it not being exactly directed at her.

“Hi,” he said to her. “Dolphin man?” he asked Danny.

“Because of the hotel. You realise she can still hear you, right?”

“Yeah. Of course,” he replied in a tone that very much suggested he hadn’t. “Uh, I’m always happy to have enthusiastic employees, but why are you here at,” he checked the computer clock, “6pm? And why is. Grace. With you?”

“Right. I’m… asking a favour. Big favour. I will actually come to work at 6pm for the next month if you do this.”

“Yes…?”

Danny sighed. “Can you look after Grace tonight? There’s a parent-teacher meeting and because they’re all fancy you can’t bring the people the meetings are about and Rachel had a babysitter but she cancelled and-” he took a breath. “and Stan’s in Japan or something for a business trip and I don’t, really, know anyone. Especially not anyone I’d trust with the monkey.” He grinned at her and she smiled back patiently.

Steve frowned for a moment, processing all that, then slowly smiled a frankly adorable smile, completely paradoxical to the rest of him. “You trust me?”

Fuck. He had said that, hadn’t he. “That was not the main point.”

“You trust me.”

“Will you do it?”

“Yeah, sure.” He was obviously still unreasonably distracted by the trust thing, but Danny would take it.

“Okay, great. I’ll be back by 9, you’ll still be here, right?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Danny grinned. “No, not really, I’ll kill you if you take her anywhere else.” He knelt down to talk to Grace. “Hey, monkey, will you be okay to stay here?”

Grace nodded. “There’s no dolphins, though.”

He laughed. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be fine despite the lack of dolphins. Danno’ll be back in three hours, not long at all.”

Grace pursed her lips, then nodded again. “Okay.” She walked over to the couch and sat down, and Danny put her backpack down beside her.

“Thankyou,” he said to Steve.

Steve smirked. “Sure, Danno. See you in three hours.”

Danny glared at him, but walked out. He watched from outside as Steve walked over to sit next to Grace, then swallowed his nerves and left them to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did mean to post it all tonight, but I'm too tired to finish it tonight, so you'll get the second part on Thursday


	13. Deary Deary I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *finger guns* exhausted, lads, so I decided to stick with my strengths and go majority dialogue. Crowley likes to sit on heat sources, Aziraphale is that strange grandmother who quotes Bible proverbs at you but does it in such a charming way and immediately follows it up with sweet comments about their grandchildren so you can't quite bring yourself to be creeped out by it, and they're both drama queens. Set like just after the book ends. Hap birth, Basil! And Happy Hanukkah to y'all in the Northern Hemisphere who are a day behind!

“So that’s the plan. You go in first, see if you can retrieve it easily, and if not I come in and cause a distraction.”

Aziraphale closed the book he’d been looking at and placed it on the pile to his right. “I still don’t understand why I’m the one going in first.”

“Because you look adorable and harmless, we’ve discussed this. And I’m better at distractions.”

“I’m terrific at distractions.” He looked over at Crowley. “Your suit is steaming.”

“Oh, fu-” Crowley leapt off the heater and concentrated hard to stop it, then brushed imaginary dust off his chest and sat back down on it. “My distractions are more distracting.”

“What about that time with the orange parrot?”

“That entire thing failed! I’m doing the distraction.”

“Fine.”

“We need some kind of codeword, so I know that it’s all working.”

Aziraphale turned a page on the next book. “Deary, deary I.”

Crowley shrugged indignantly. “Well, alr- Aahh!” He leapt up and frantically batted at the flames coming from the bottom of his suit jacket. Aziraphale looked up and made the same shriek, and grabbed his glass of water off the table and threw it at him. Crowley emerged from the water, took his sunglasses off, and shook himself, then hissed in frustration at both of them. “I could have just put it out.”

“Oh. Yes.”

 

“In what world does ‘oh, deary, deary I’ mean ‘everything’s fine? That’s ridiculous, right?”

“Uh…”

“In the world where that was the prearranged signal, Crowley!”

“No, it wasn’t! I suggested a codeword, and you- oh.”

“Exactly!”

“Alright, I didn’t know that’s what you were saying, I just thought there was something wrong in your book.”

“Even if it hadn’t been the codeword, me saying it didn’t have to mean anything was _wrong_. I could have just been talking to the nice lady about an unfortunate event in her day. There was absolutely no need to knock that poor man out and cause such a mess. Which you are definitely going to clean up.”

“It’s alright, he doesn’t have to-”

“Oh no, he does.”

“I thought you were in trouble!”

“Attempting to buy a limited release toy for Adam is not exactly a life-threatening situation, dear.”

Crowley started to reply, then backtracked and started a different answer. “Well, maybe not, but you never know. We are technically on the run. I think. It’s a bit hard to tell what the powers are thinking.”

The woman behind the counter leaned forward, ignoring that comment. “Would you like to buy this?” she asked, holding up the box Aziraphale had got her to bring down from above the counter.

“Well, yes, obviously, that’s what this whole thing has been about,” Crowley snapped.

“Excuse my partner, he’s a little on edge,” Aziraphale said with a smile. “He can be demonic sometimes. Yes, we would, please.”

“Cash or card?”

“Cash, thankyou,” Aziraphale replied, counting out the exact amount and handing it over while Crowley sulked behind him.

“Would you like a receipt?” she asked, putting it in a bag.

“No, it’s fine. God has receipts on us all.”

“Alright. Here’s your purchase.”

Aziraphale took it, smiled at her again, and turned to Crowley. “Now. Go clean up the aisle.”

“Oh, fine, angel.”

“Thankyou, dear.”


	14. Babysitting Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey KatieTaylor here's the continuation! Steve shamelessly probes a child for info on whether his crush likes him and promptly gets the tables turned on him.

“I can make there be dolphins if you want.”

“Really? Where’s the water?”

Steve laughed. “Well, not real dolphins. But pretty nice ones.”

“How?”

“Come on.” They stood up and he put a hand on her shoulder, and led her out to the computer table. “If you wait for a minute…” He pulled the computer screens further out and typed something into the table. Grace sat down on the floor while they waited for it to load. Slowly the pixels on all three of the large screens resolved into an underwater video. A dolphin swam past the camera, then the rest of the pod followed, dispersed across the screens. “Whoa…” Grace breathed.

Steve grinned. “Chin Ho taught me how to do it. Not with that video, but I like dolphins too.”

“Chin.” Grace frowned, distracted by the dolphins. “Calm man.”

“Sounds like him.” Steve paused, and sat down next to Grace. “Does Danny call me Dolphin Man, or…”

“Mm. Yes. He did before he left.”

Steve nodded. That was fair. “But did he start calling me that or did you?”

She looked away from the dolphins to stare at him with an unsettlingly piercing gaze. “I think he did. But he calls you other things too.”

“What other things?”

She shrugged, shoulders bumping up against her chin. “The boss. McGarrett. Partner. Idiot. But he always used to call Mum idiot too.”

“Not in the same tone, though, I’m guessing.”

Grace looked doubtful, but she didn’t reply. Instead she said, “You make Danno happy.”  
“Yeah?”

“Yeah. He smiles now. When he talks about you. He hadn’t been smiling. Not properly.”

“That’s not good. He needs to smile.”

“Yes. He does now.” She made eye contact with him. “Do you?”

Steve blinked. “I smile. I smiled just before.”

“But properly.”

“I….”

“Hm.” Grace looked back at the screens and grinned. “I love dolphins.”

 

“Hey, monkey! You okay?” Danny swung Grace up into the air, then put her down with a hard exhale of breath and lightly touched Steve’s shoulder. “Thankyou,” he said quietly, then louder, addressed to both of them, “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah! Uncle Steve made dolphins in the big room!”

“Uncle Steve, huh?” He raised his eyebrows at Steve, who smiled hesitantly.

“He said to call him that.”

“Okay, then. What about you?” he asked Steve. “Did you have fun?”

“Yes?” Steve said uncertainly.

Danny nudged Grace with his hip. “Go get your stuff.” When she ran off to do that, he turned back to Steve. “That sounded ambiguous.”

“No, we… we did. Only I think she psychoanalysed me.”

Danny laughed. “Oh yeah, she does that. She worries about people, and she’s insightful. It can be a bit of an intimidating combination in a seven-year-old.”

Before Steve could reply, Grace came running back. “Ready, Danno!”

“Okay, monkey, let’s go.” He put a hand on her shoulder and looked at Steve, who looked back, and they maintained eye contact just a little longer than was comfortable until Grace broke it with, “Bye, Uncle Steve!”

Steve knelt down. “Bye, Gracie. I’ll see you soon.”

“Yep!” She waved at him, and they turned to go. At the door, Danny looked back. “Thankyou, Steve. Really. See you tomorrow.”

Steve waved at him. As they walked down the hallway, he smiled. Properly.


	15. A Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amanda: I love 1 (one) Vulcan.  
> *Spock is born*  
> Amanda: I love 2 (two) Vulcans.

Amanda stared down at the tiny green-flushed baby in the bed and put her arm around Sarek. “He’s a miracle,” she whispered.

“He is the product of an extraordinary scientific achievement,” Sarek replied.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Yes.” He paused. “He is.”

Spock’s eyes opened slowly and he stared up at them without focus. Amanda put a hand down and he grasped for it, then curled his hand around her finger. He yawned, then reached up with his other arm. Sarek reached down to pick him up, leaving them in an awkward position as he retained his hold on Amanda. She pulled away and they moved over to sit on the lounge nearby. “I’m terrified,” Amanda admitted softly, watching Spock breathe.

“Why?” Sarek asked carefully.

She took a deep breath. “It’s hard enough raising a child for the first time when you have centuries of information of people doing the same thing. We have none of that for him. We don’t know what could go wrong.”

“The doctors who assisted in bringing him here have some idea. And they will monitor him closely in his first years of life.”

She brushed her hand over his dark hair. “Yes, I know. But I don’t just mean physically. You know he’s going to face discrimination because of his parentage. Vulcans may preach peace, but they’re not actually that accepting. Especially not children.”

Sarek stayed silent, torn between defence of his planet and a knowledge that Amanda was speaking the truth. Eventually he said, “He will overcome any discrimination. That is not new, and we will teach it to him.”

She sighed. “I suppose you’re right. There may never have been any like him here, but there have been others throughout history.”

“He will find his place.”

“Yes. He will.”

“We can only hope it will be with us.”

Amanda brushed Spock’s cheek where it lay against Sarek’s chest, then pulled her legs up and leant to the side against his shoulder. “Wherever he finds home, I’ll be happy. Just as long as he finds it.”

 

Twenty years later, Amanda opens her arms. Spock sighs, then steps closer to hug her. “I hope this works out for you,” she whispers into his ear. “I hope you find your home up there.”

He steps back and nods at her, understanding perfectly what she is trying to say. “I believe I will,” he replies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one is short, I suddenly remembered at 2am as I was going to bed that I hadn't finished writing it


	16. Sleigh Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse for not getting this up yesterday really, but here's another scene from JCoRitWKSiSHaTSS my hellfuck of a title (spoilers Rory knows exactly what she's doing here but Jess is blind as a bat when it comes to reading people) (also it looks way shorter than it is? it's actually almost 500 words which is about the average length this year)

Jess walked into the front garden of the Dragonfly Inn still looking down at the texts from Rory on his phone. It was Rory’s first night back in Stars Hollow for the holidays, and Jess’s first time seeing her face to face for over a year. When Lorelai had told her he was here, she’d insisted on organising something, and on keeping Jess in the dark about what it was. His phone pinged again. ‘Look up,’ from Ernest’s Crush. They’d put that in together, giggling, years ago and even when he got a new phone he could never bring himself to change it. He did as bidden, and laughed. There was a full-blown Central-Park-style carriage sitting at the edge of the garden, with horses hooked up, and Rory was organised in an awkward half lying down lean on the bench inside. One of the horses nosed the ground, determinedly looking for grass underneath the ice and snow, as Rory leapt down. He walked over and she hugged him. “Hi!”

He returned the hug and the greeting, then rubbed the horses’ noses. “Hi, Desdemona. Cleto.” Desdemona nuzzled his hand in response while Cleto put his head straight back down and continued his fruitless search for grass. Jess stepped back to take in the full spectacle. “A carriage ride? Really?”

“Well, I had to do something special for your first Christmas back. And when I heard it was going to snow…” Rory shrugged, then batted one of the bells hanging off the front of the carriage and started singing, “Hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling toooooo...”

Jess grinned at her and tried to convince himself not to read into it. “Technically it’s not a sleigh.”

“Close enough.”

“Where did you even get a carriage?”

“The Inn had it? I’m not sure why, I think they had some idea about making carriage rides a thing and it fell through.”

“Oh, I think Lorelai mentioned something about that. They’re trying to make it work.”

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because the important thing right now is that we have a carriage!” She climbed back up and patted the bench besides her. Jess took a deep breath, told himself he could manage this without any bad consequences, like being constantly reminded of old dates or suddenly blurting out that he was still desperately in love with her, and climbed up next to her.

“Hang on, I better get them going,” Rory said, and clambered up into the driver’s seat. “Hey, Cleto!” she called, picking up the reins. “There’s no grass there, move your lazy ass!”

Jess stared at her back as she got them walking, at her shoulders moving under her thick jacket and the waves of her hair shifting over the cloth, and swallowed. He could do this. He could do this.


	17. Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for semi-graphic description of middle of the night anxiety/panic attacks/flashback things. It's kinda hard for me to tell exactly how vivid it actually is since I'm more or less describing my own experience, but yeah. 
> 
> Look Ma, no dialogue! Which means it also looks way shorter than it is, but still an achievement for me. All but one of the H50 fics and all of the McDanno ones so far this year have been set in season 1 and I have no idea why.

Steve jolted up in bed and started to reach for his gun, before realizing he’d been woken up by his own shout. He relaxed physically, if not mentally, and dropped his head to his hands. He’d known this was going to happen, he should have just stayed awake. Ever since coming back to Hawaii, his PTSD had doubled in intensity, so sleeping next to his father’s bedroom right after a case involving a navy officer getting shot was inevitably going to end in waking up in the middle of the night with a racing heartbeat and a mind desperately trying to throw itself back to that phone call. It wasn’t what his nightmare had been about – that had been Freddie, he was pretty sure, although he never could remember the details of them afterwards – but these last few months since, it was inevitably what his waking mind would return to. He tried to calm his heartbeat, taking deep breaths and attempting to distract himself by thinking of literally anything else, but in vain. Danny was downstairs on his couch, since they’d thought he might have a concussion but weren’t sure, and for a moment he almost considered waking him up to alleviate the awful stillness of the dark house. He rejected it seconds after the thought entered his head as too harmful to Danny and too vulnerable for him. Maybe he should go downstairs anyway, though.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, threw an old Navy t-shirt over his boxers and walked down the stairs. He paused at the bottom, seeing the top of Danny’s head, blonde hair mussed, and slowed his steps as he moved past the couch towards the kitchen. Safely there, he shut the kitchen door and turned the bright light on, attempting to convince his mind that it was daytime, but the stillness and loneliness of the giant house remained. He crossed to the sink and drank a glass of water in huge gulps, then got another and drank it slower, leaning against the counter and focusing on the coolness of the marble seeping through the thin cotton of his shirt. When that still failed to stop the edges of his consciousness dancing with anxiety and his ribcage slowly tightening, he turned the light off and walked back out. He paused to let his eyes become accustomed to the dark, then walked over to where Danny was sleeping. He sat down on the coffee table and stared at him, focusing on the living, breathing, person in front of him and not the ghost of the dead one behind him. Danny grunted and flung a hand out as he shifted, and almost on instinct Steve put his own hands out to grasp it. Danny exhaled and settled back down, and Steve mirrored his breath as he felt his heartbeat slow and his anxiety retreat at the physical contact. He closed his eyes and focused on it as his lungs expanded and his thoughts got slower and slower. He was asleep there, slouched over on the coffee table with his hands over Danny’s in his lap, before he realised it.

 

Danny woke up as the sun streamed through the thin curtains on the window behind him, cursing his lack of an eye mask. It was a full minute before he tried to move and became aware that his hand was being held in place. He opened his eyes to see Steve, looking so clear-faced and vulnerable that it felt like a blow to his solar plexus, half-falling off the table in front of him with his hand grasped tightly. He stilled, and watched him. He didn’t know what he was going to do once he had to move, or what had left him in that position, although he could guess at the latter, but for now he could watch him, and appreciate the rare glimpse into the person Steve kept tightly underneath the emotional armour.


	18. Cashmatory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set right at the end of 8x09 Make Me Kai

“Hey, Charlie, no! Don’t look in there!”

Charlie glanced behind him, giggling, and continued to pull the cupboard door open until Grace ran over and physically picked him up. He laughed harder as she walked over, holding him in the air, and placed him on the bed before frowning at him with a mock-stern face. She closed the cupboard door and stalked back over, swinging her arms by her side. Charlie curled over with giggles, and she smiled at him before crouching down to kneel in front of him. She lifted his chin up to look at her and waited until he stopped laughing before saying, “Seriously, Charlie, you know you can’t look in there before Christmas, that’s where your presents are.”

‘yeah, I know, that’s why I did it,’ his answering nod said.

“Okay, but you’re not allowed to see them before Christmas. I’m pretty sure we’re trying to teach you self-control. Either that or Danno just wants to see your face when you get surprised.”

“I wanna see them, but.”

Grace repressed a grin. “You wouldn’t want to rob Danno of that, though, would you? He loves seeing you when you first open them, and it won’t be the same if you know what they are before.”

He squirmed in indecision. “I guess not. But…”

“Yeah, I know, you wanna see them. You’re excited.”

He nodded. She stood up and sat next to him. “Hey, how about we wrap everyone else’s tomorrow? Danno’s and Mum’s and Stan’s and Uncle Steve’s. And maybe we can go out and find extra ones for Danno and Steve and some for Tani and Junior, for when they come out of quarantine. That’d be fun, right? And they’d like that.”

Charlie nodded enthusiastically.

“Maybe we can get Steve and Danny something for the restaurant,” Grace said with a mischievous grin, perfectly aware of how divisive anything like that would be and thoroughly looking forward to seeing the argument. “And we can get Uncle Jerry to come with us, and he can help us with what Tani and Junior might like.”

He nodded and blinked, thoughts visibly wandering. “Is Uncle Jerry back yet?”

“No, I don’t think so-” She was cut off by a door opening and closing downstairs.

“Hey, kids, I’m home!” Jerry called up.

Grace nudged Charlie. “Let’s go help him put the things away.”

Charlie leapt up and ran down the stairs in front of Grace. “I hope he bought stuff for Danny to make cashmatory!”

“Cacciatore,” Grace corrected, laughing.

“Yeah, casmatorah!”


	19. Danvers Decoration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Supercorp thing I've written! Have fun lads

“Wow. Looks like Santa threw up in here.”

Kara twisted around in mid-air, where she was floating above the mantelpiece, and grinned at her.

Lena tossed her keys on the table and hung her bag up. “Pretty impressive for a girl who wasn’t even born on Earth.”

“Well, when I was here last night, I saw that you didn’t have any decorations up. I couldn’t stand for that.”

“Float for that?”

She laughed, and drifted down and forwards. She kissed Lena, then walked around and filled the kettle. “Tea?”

Lena leant on the other side of the bench. “Please.”

 “Why didn’t you have any decorations?” she asked, looking over her shoulder.

She sighed. “Family.”

“Oh, of course.” She put the kettle on and turned around to face her. “I’m sorry, are you okay with this?” She waved a hand at the decked out apartment.

Lena glanced over her shoulder and laughed. “Yeah, this is… very different. The Luthors were very minimalistic in their decoration. This is, uh, not.”

Kara batted tinsel away to get to the reindeer-covered cupboard knob and announced, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is classy, sophisticated Christmas decorating.”

“When did you get Christmas mugs? And where did you put the rest of them?”

She slid a mug with reindeer antlers across to Lena and picked up her own, with a print of lights around it. “I have to keep some secrets.”

“Do I get my own mugs back after the 25th?”

She sipped her tea with an innocent expression. “Maybe. They’re in a safe place. Anyway, these are yours now.”

The antlers poked into Lena’s hand and she inspected it suspiciously. “Thanks?”

“You’re welcome.”

Lena went to drink her own tea and yelped. “Hot!”

Kara moved around the kitchen at double speed to give her with a glass of cold water. She gulped it down and exhaled. “I keep forgetting that just because you’re drinking it doesn’t mean I can.”

She winced. “Yeah. Sorry.” She pulled Lena’s cup towards her, away from Lena. “Do you want to help me with the rest of the decorating while that cools down?”

“You’re not done yet?” she asked in amazement. Kara laughed.

“Done? Sweetheart, you haven’t even seen the start of Danvers decoration yet.”

Lena looked around the very busy but nevertheless seemingly empty of boxes apartment. “Where are you keeping the rest of them?”

“Oh, I’ve been flying them from my apartment one at a time.”

“Please tell me you’ve been doing that in the Supergirl costume.”

“I can’t exactly risk people seeing Kara Danvers, flying reporter, so yeah.”

She chuckled. “I love it. The mighty Supergirl, flying through the skies to rescue my apartment from being boring.”

“The most important mission I’ve ever had.”

Lena shook her head and pulled her across the bench to kiss her. “Go on, I’ll help you with the rest.”

Kara grinned, then pulled open her shirt and flew out the window, waving to Lena as she went. Lena grinned and picked up her cup again, then quickly put it down. “Danvers decoration, huh?” she mumbled to herself.


	20. Antlers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is my family whom I love

Spock could hear Sulu and Chekov furtively chuckling two tables behind him, and was fairly sure they were planning something to do with him. His suspicions were confirmed when Chekov started to attempt to sneak up behind him, obviously vastly underestimating his hearing. He briefly considered turning around and stopping them, but he wanted to know what they had planned, was sure it wouldn’t be harmful. In any case, the bridge crew needed a morale boost after the last semi-disastrous mission, especially with a lot of their holidays coming up, so far be it from him to deny them such a boost simply for the sake of his own dignity. Something was slid into his hair, Chekov carefully not touching his skin. He continued eating, waiting for them to leave before taking it off.

 

“He definitely realised,” Sulu whispered to Chekov as they walked out.

“He didn’t even flinch!”

“Yeah, but this is Spock we’re talking about.”

“Eh, you’re probably right. He didn’t try to stop us, though. I wonder how long before he takes it off?”

“Probably not long. But as long as Dr McCoy gets to see it, as promised.”

Chekov glanced behind him as the door slid open. “He’s supposed to call him now, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” Sulu started as they stepped outside, and was cut off by a siren. The captain’s voice came over the shipwide comms, “Ship to yellow alert. Officers Spock, McCoy, Scott, Delorah, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov to briefing room now. Everyone else, hold your positions but get ready to come on duty.”

Sulu and Chekov glanced at each other and started a brisk march to the briefing room. From the rec room behind them, Spock followed, having completely forgotten to check the antlers clipped to his hair.

 

Bones met up with Spock down the hallway from the briefing room. “Do you know what this-” he started, before looking at him and biting back laughter.

“What, Doctor?”

“Uh, never mind. Nothing. Do you know what’s going on?”

“No, but I would presume it has something to do with the Grygaroans. We shall find out soon enough, in any case.”

They walked into the briefing room as Sulu sat down. Everyone except Jim himself was there, and they all glanced at them and then very quickly looked back down at the computers in front of them, apart from Sulu, who just smiled at them. There was a moment of silence as Spock and McCoy seated themselves, then Jim half-ran in the door.

“Sorry I’m late to my own meeting,” he started, eyes skimming over the room to check that everyone was there. “Starfleet needed to be notified, and they weren’t quick about it.” He sat down and opened his PADD, sending something to the room’s computers, then looked back at them all. “Half a standard hour ago, we received this communication from the Grygaroans. They appear to be declaring war. We have reversed course to meet them in the hopes of stopping this and not leading them to any other inhabited planets. Their technology is far less advanced than ours is, so we’re not in any physical danger here, but our main challenge is going to be not harming them, and attempting to maintain a peaceful relationship. Now, if you could listen to the message…” It started playing, and they all listened to it, Uhura frowning.

“Captain,” she started as it finished. “There’s something wrong here.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Their grammar is too casual for it to be a translation to Standard. I don’t think this is actually from Grigoria.”

“Then who?” McCoy asked.

“I don’t know, but we better find out.”

 

Jim put an arm around Spock’s waist and half-leant against him. “I hate waiting.”

Spock let his own arm fall across his shoulders and opened the door to their quarters. “I know, ashayam. But we have no choice now. It is good that the Grygaroans remain diplomatic allies despite the attempt to set us against each other, and we do not know who set the trap, so we can do nothing but wait for their next move. In the interim, we must continue as normal.”

“I know. I just… hate waiting.” He collapsed on the couch as Spock turned the lights on, then squinted at him, actually looking at him for the first time that day. “What’s on your head?” He laughed. “Why are you wearing antlers? Have you had them on all day?”

Spock raised a hand to his head and pulled them out. “Oh. I must have.”

“Uh… why?”

He put them down on the table and sat next to Jim. “Sulu and Chekov put them on me in the rec room this morning. I had meant to remove them, but then you called the meeting. They must have told everyone there not to mention it. I don’t know why Dr. McCoy didn’t inform me though.”

“I think you do.”

“Hmmph.”

 

Bones relaxed back in his chair, looked at the photo of Spock standing at the front of the room with his arms folded and reindeer antlers clipped into his hair that now took pride of place on his picture shelf, and laughed happily.


	21. Family Trauma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LoT Season 3b proposal: The Legends go to counselling

Leonard woke up as the weight of Mick lifted off the other side of the bed. “What?” he mumbled blearily.

“Fine. Nightmares. Go back to sleep.”

“No, no, don’t do that.” He heaved himself up and blinked a few times. “I’ll come with. Don’t go drinking alone in the dark in the middle of the night.”

“I was gonna turn the light on.”

Leonard rolled his eyes and led the way out of their room, as Mick threw on a robe and followed him.

 

Jax and Martin walked out their doors either side of the hallway and met in the middle, automatically turning towards the kitchen. “Can’t believe you woke me up, Grey, I was sleeping great before your dream came in.”

“Excuse me, that nightmare originated with you, Jefferson. I was in the middle of a lovely dream before it intruded.”

“Nuh-uh, dude, Lily was in it.”

“But we were Firestorm. We’re never combined in mine. And Lily was not in danger, she was just there.”

Jax sighed. “Okay, maybe it was mine. You would’ve woken us up soon enough but.”

“Hmm. That one was bad, Jefferson.” He paused. “I would hug you, but I am not entirely confident in my skill at restraining fusion right now, and forming Firestorm in the middle of the ship would be problematic.”

He shook his head and chuckled. “Oh, shut up, Grey.”

Martin muttered something derogatory under his breath but smiled regardless.

 

“Hey, Sara!” Jax greeted in surprise as they entered the kitchen. “Oh, and Amaya,” he added as she emerged from the kitchen holding two glasses of scotch. She waved with one before handing it to Sara. “What are you doing up?”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Same as you two, I’m guessing.”

Amaya and Sara sat down on the steps down into the dining room, and Martin sat in one of the dining room chairs.

Mick and Leonard walked in, elbowing each other, and Amaya laughed. “The whole gang’s here.”

“This is what happens when you put a group of people with prior trauma onto a ship where they face it every day,” Martin said dryly.

"Love the silk, Mick," Sara said.

He looked at her suspiciously and, seeing no sarcasm on her face, replied, "Thanks."

“Tea?” Jax asked Martin, moving over to the fabricator.

“Please.”

“Can’t believe I want Earl Grey goddamn tea,” he muttered without heat. “Gideon?”

“Two Earl Grey teas, coming right up,” the soft voice came over the speakers as it pinged and they appeared.

“Hey, Gideon, are Ray and Nate still asleep or are they just staying in their rooms alone?” Sara asked. There was a pause, then Gideon replied. “I believe that question may be seen by some as overly intrusive. But no, they are both asleep. Oh, no, wait. Mr. Palmer just woke up.”

Sara laughed, a sharp edge to it. “Hopefully Nate gets to sleep through.”

“Well, Dr. Heywood does not have the prior trauma Professor Stein was referring to.”

“The lucky bastard,” Leonard drawled from where he was sitting cross-legged with his back against the kitchen bench. Mick grunted in agreement, standing next to him.

Ray walked in the door and stopped. “Huh. Everyone’s here. It’s a party.”

The room chuckled, and he walked in, moving to the fabricator, then pushing up to sit on top of the bench. “What’re we talking about?”

“Spying on you,” Mick replied.

“What?”

“I asked Gideon if you were asleep,” Sara admitted. “I don’t think she approved.”

“Well, Gideon has the best morals of us all. I don’t mind.”

“See?” Sara said to the ceiling.

Gideon said nothing in reply, but changed the lights to a grey filter.

“Is that… a reference to the Legends’ morality?” Martin asked.

“Perhaps.”

“Who made you so goddamn sneaky?”

“I resent the implication that I am incapable of self-directed growth.”

Ray laughed. “Yeah, she’s been growing herself from Day 1. I want to talk to the person who created her original program. She’s magnificent. You’re magnificent, Gideon.”

“I am aware.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the abrupt end, my computer was dying and I'd been trying and failing to end it for about 100 words


	22. Shameless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look, this basically just exists because while that scene where they were supposed to cook for Harry was funny, the implication that they wouldn't work just as smoothly together in a kitchen as in the field was frankly offensive and I was deeply wounded. And also, y'know, the fam.

Steve and Danny moved around the kitchen in a smooth dance, chopping and cooking. Danny leant over a pan, lifted the wooden spoon to his lips, then extended a hand behind him. “Can I have the-”

Steve placed the salt in his hand before he finished the sentence. Danny shook it in, then squinted behind him. “Did you taste this before?”

“No! I mean, what else would you be adding right now?”

“I always forget you cook without me. Cooked before me.”

Steve laughed. “I love Aunt Deb, but she’s a terrible cook, and Mary wasn’t any better back then. Still isn’t, actually. Believe me, it was a necessary skill.”

“Of course you learnt it as a survival thing. Me, I was just forcefully sat down by Grandma Williams and told that my siblings didn’t care, so if I didn’t learn she was going to disown the lot of us.”

“That sounds like a survival thing to me.”

“Ah, she wouldn’t have actually done it, she was just annoyed.”

“Wow, imagine having a family member who makes extreme empty threats when they’re irritated.”

Danny rolled his eyes and reached up to the cupboard above the stove, straining to reach the handle. Steve laughed, ignored the glare Danny shot at him, and opened it. “What’d’ya want?”

“Bowls. And for you to have a reasonable human sized kitchen.”

He brought the bowls out and gently hip-checked him. “You implying you’re a reasonable human size? Pretty sure you need a few more inches for that.”

Danny pulled him down, still holding the bowls, and growled lightly. “That’s not what you were saying last night.”

“I meant up here,” Steve said, putting the bowls down on the bench behind him and sliding his arms around his chest. “It’s all good down there.”

They were both too wrapped up in each other to notice Grace walking through the doorway, looking at her phone, until she looked up and shrieked quietly, dropping her phone to put her hands over her eyes. “Guys!”

They pulled apart and Danny turned back to the stovetop, while Steve leant on the bench next to it and grinned at her. “What?”

She pulled her hands away and picked up her phone, putting it in her pocket and one hand on her hip. “You’re really shameless, huh, Uncle Steve?”

He shrugged.

“Look, I’m glad y’all are, uh, healthily expressing yourselves, but if you could refrain from doing it in front of me, your daughter slash stepdaughter, that’d be great, thanks.”

They both laughed, and Steve turned to pull down a colander. “Why’d you come in?”

“Oh, Mom sent me to see when dinner was going to be ready. They’re gonna start regretting not going to a restaurant soon, you two are taking forever. Although I guess now I know why. Aah! I do not want that image.”

“We’ll be out in a couple minutes,” Danny said. “You want to take cutlery out?”

“Please, anything to get me out of here now.”

“Go on, you know where it is,” Steve pointed. “Leave us alone.”

“Aaah!” she shrieked dramatically again, grabbing the cutlery and running out, followed by both Steve and Danny’s laughter.


	23. Snowhost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sign almost ended up with Beauty and the Beast lyrics (Be our guest be our guest)

“Hey, look, it’s snowing!”

Rory turned around from where she was organising guest records and followed Lorelai’s finger.

“Wow, it looks heavy too.”

“You know what means.”

Rory stared blankly at her and she sighed in disappointment. “I can’t believe I raised a child this indifferent to fun. Snowman! In the front yard to welcome guests. A snowhost, if you will.”

“Ah, of course. Shall I make him a sign?”

“Definitely. It might sustain some water damage, so don’t put too much effort in. Go get Luke and Jess first, though, I need their help.”

Rory frowned. “You don’t think fixing the plumbing up there might be more important than building a snowman? Sorry, snowhost.”

Lorelai put a hand to her heart and gasped. “Definitely not, and I am offended you would suggest that.”

“Alright, I’ll go get them. I think Luke’s gonna agree with me here, though.”

“Of course, he is equally boring and practical. Maybe it’s his influence on you. Make him come down anyway, I need his hat. Don’t tell him that.”

“He’s not going to be happy if you ruin his hat,” Rory warned as she walked upstairs.

Lorelai waved a dismissive hand at her. “Michel!” she called into the dining room.

He walked out, holding a newspaper in one hand. “Yes?”

“I need you to take over the desk.”

He pouted artfully. “But I don’t want to.”

“Your job, Michel, remember? And in reward I won’t mention the fact that you were clearly not helping the servers back there, as you claimed you were. I have to go build a snowman.”

“And what if I wanted to help build this snow person?” he asked, moving behind the desk as Lorelai moved out, and pushing his newspaper under the bench.

“Do you?” Lorelai replied, knowing full well the answer.

“Well, no. But it would be nice to be asked.”

“Would you like to come outside into the cold and the damp in your fancy suit and equally fancy shoes and help me to build a horrendously frivolous snowman, Michel?”

“No. I will stay here in the warm and read my newspaper. But thankyou for asking.”

“You’re welcome, Michel. Rory!” she called up the stairs. “You got them yet?”

“Hang on! Luke’s just fixing it so it doesn’t flood everywhere while he’s away,” she said as she walked down the stairs with Jess.

“So I hear we’re building a snowhost,” Jess said to Lorelai. “Sounds sorta like a Doctor Who monster.”

“Nice to know you’re being open about your geekiness now.” She nudged him in the side as Luke walked down trepidatiously. “Would you reassure your uncle that I’m not about to murder him, or his hat?”

“She says she’s going to murder you and your hat!”

Lorelai laughed and raised a hand. “No, I said I was not going to do those things, you’re safe, honey.”

Luke rolled his eyes and came off the last step. “What are you doing then?”

“Building a snowhost.”

“Yes, Rory said that much. My question is, what the hell is a snowhost?”

Lorelai led the boys outside, leaving Rory in the lounge constructing a welcome sign with cardboard, pens, and sticky tape. “A snow person of indeterminate gender who will welcome our guests to the Inn.”

“Are you getting any more guests tonight?” Jess asked. “I thought the rooms were all full.”

“Besides the point.”

“It seems very much the point to me,” Luke said.

“No, see, if anyone walks in, it will ease the sting of us turning them down if they’ve seen a nice welcoming face on their way in.”

“Face?”

“Well, welcoming figure. Come on, help me pack him.”

 

‘Welcome to the Dragonfly Inn. There’s no vacancy right now, but please come in to enjoy the warmth and book a future visit!' the sign ended up saying in bright colours. Combined with Luke’s cap and a shawl that had been sitting in the lost and found for weeks, they all agreed he made a striking figure. A slightly frightening figure, maybe, but a striking one. “Best snowhost ever!”

“Only snowhost ever.”

“I.e, best snowhost ever.”


	24. Comm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So there is a whole hc behind 'Tiger' involving his middle name (T'gai), Michael teasing him for being feline as a kid, and him just up and scratching a bully on the cheek at one point.

“Hey, Tiger.”

Spock’s face came into view of the screen and Michael blinked. “You look tired! You okay over there?”

“I am fine. Hello, Michael. Merry Christmas.”

“And a Happy Hanukkah to you.”

“You are aware that I do not celebrate either holiday.”

“Don’t let Amanda hear you say that.”

“Who’s that?” Sylvia appeared behind Michael, half-wet hair flying everywhere. “Oh, hi, Spock. What’s the Enterprise like?”

“Hello, Lieutenant Tilly.”

She rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. “Again, it’s Sylvia. We’re basically siblings.”

“Sylvia,” he repeated, slightly doubtfully.

“Hey, don’t duck the question with your masterly Vulcan sneaking skills,” Michael interjected. “How’s the Enterprise? Is everyone being appallingly holiday-ish? The crew’s about 80% human, right?”

“Indeed. They are all very… happy. Oddly enough, the senior officers seem to be those who are most enthusiastic. Especially Lieutenants Sulu and Uhura.”

“Who are they?” Sylvia asked.

“Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu is the chief helmsman. He keeps a greenhouse on board the ship. He is rather the ringleader of the holiday festivities. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura is slated to be head of Communications when Lieutenant Krieg leaves next standard year. She appears to have recorded multiple album’s worth of Christmas carols and is playing them over the shipwide comms. Quietly, thank Surak, and she does have a certain talent in the area, but it is irritating at times.”

“And what about your boyfriend? How’s he?”

“The captain is fine. And not my boyfriend.”

She crowed. “Ha! I didn’t name anyone.”

“You have been referring to him as my boyfriend since I first mentioned meeting him. It was not a difficult deduction to make. He also attempts to insist that I call him Jim while off-duty.”

“You gotta make sure I can be there for the wedding.”

Sylvia laughed in the background. “You don’t think we should get married before the people who aren’t even together yet?”

“I didn’t say they had to get married soon. Besides,” she held up her hand and pointed to the engagement ring on it. “We’re getting there.”

“Michael!” Spock exclaimed. “Have you told Mother?”

She grinned. “No, I’m going to call her next.”

“She will not be pleased that you told me first.”

“Eh, she’ll just be pleased we’re still bonded. Well. In the human sense of the word.”

Spock raised an eyebrow. “I would not discount the Vulcan sense of the word either. You did hold me fairly often as a baby, and we both have high psi-ratings.”

“I guess we’ll never know. What’s the captain’s psi-rating?”

“How would I have obtained that information?”

“I don’t know, I thought maybe you’d want to know if you could be bonded, y’know?”

He sighed. “Which part of ‘I believe that Captain Kirk has a deeper personality than he shows, and I should like to discover it,’ made you believe we are, to use the human phrase, meant to be?”

“You didn’t just hear it?” Sylvia asked.

He glanced down.

“You did!” Michael said triumphantly. “See, I knew it. Go get him, Tiger.”

Spock shook his head. “Go tell Mother,” he admonished.

“You go ask James Tiberius out.”

“Sylvia. Can you stop her?”

“Nah, she’s incorrigible. Have a good night, Spock.”

“Yeah, try to avoid the holiday stuff as much as you can, you’ll be fine. Love you.”

“Goodbye, Michael.”

“Ah!’

“I love you too.”

“Thankyou, you can go now. Bye.”

“Goodbye.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See y'all next year! December for those of you who are just here for the advents, for any longer & H50 readers, hopefully March? Watch this space.


End file.
